


Starlight

by makeshiftrolley



Series: The Dance of the Two Left Feet [4]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: M/M, Slow Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 08:04:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13313976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makeshiftrolley/pseuds/makeshiftrolley
Summary: I thought I told you I don't dance.Where Reyes asks Jean to dance and completely fails at it, or at least, he thinks.





	Starlight

They sit in silence.

Reyes works. Jean doesn’t stop him- _cannot_ stop him. For so long as Kadara’s heart beats, and life pulses from the port, Reyes is never done. He is the captain of this wayward ship-Kadara, sailing on the endless sea of time.

Jean sits. He does...nothing. His feet are propped up on the coffee table. He thrums a melody on his stomach, using the rhythm of his breathing as a metronome. Idleness usually makes him agitated. He needs to move; pace around the room as he concocts intricate plans and projects.

Reyes usually listens, always does. He’ll even listen to Jean talk nonsense.

Today, Jean has nothing.

And perhaps...he likes it- _revels_ in it, having nothing. His mind rests, and he focuses on the small details. Like the lights in Reyes’ room are tinted pink or that Tartarus is surprisingly empty in the afternoon.

A data pad drops by his feet. Reyes stands in front of him.

“You seem bored,” he says.

“I am,” Jean agrees. “I like it.”

“Okay, who are you and what have you done with Jean Ryder?”

Jean laughs. He stands up, and snakes an arm behind Reyes’ hips. Jean pulls him close. “I’ll give you a hint.”

He leans down and captures Reyes’ lips. They taste sweet from the whiskey he had earlier, and distinctively _Reyes_ which has Jean coming back for more. Reyes scrunches the back of Jean’s hoodie. He hums.

“Hmm...I’m convinced,” Reyes says when they part. Always flushed and breathless, like Jean has sucked the life out of him after every kiss.

Maybe he has, and that’s why he feels so full, so _lively_ when Reyes is around. And he makes Jean do impossible things like revel in nothingness.

“I have an idea,” Reyes opens his Omni-tool. He scrolls through a list of songs, most are unfamiliar to Jean.

_Moonlight Serenade_ is where Reyes stops. He selects it. A slow tune comes from the speakers. A waltz maybe? Or a ballad, Jean has no idea. But one thing he’s certain is what Reyes intends by the way Reyes looks at him.

“I thought I told you I don’t dance,” Jean says.

“You told me a lot of things,” Reyes counters, “some of which turned out to be untrue.”

“Like?”

“I hate you.”

“Fair enough,” Jean says simply, and lists it as one of the impossible things Reyes makes him do.

It’s the best thing Reyes has made Jean done. Love him. The galaxy is brighter with Reyes in Jean’s life. It makes him forget that this galaxy made him an orphan, or this galaxy made him watch his sister die.

Or the Archon, always the Archon.

“I still don’t dance,” Jean says again.

Reyes bows. He offers his hand. “Try me.”

Jean accepts, and Reyes spins him around, catching him by the hip. They sway, or Reyes attempts to make him sway, follow the rhythm of the tune with his feet.  

He fails. Their movements are awkward. Jean is almost a head taller than Reyes, he should be the one leading.

Except Jean has one undeniable fact about him which is obvious now if Reyes ever wants him to try again.

Jean _cannot_ dance.

He knows how electrons travel inside a transistor, can say Asimov’s laws of robotics  like a prayer but dancing is never him.

To salvage what little romance remains in their dance, Reyes wraps himself around Jean. He sways them. They are close, too close. Jean feels the steady beat of Reyes’ heart on his own, as if theirs are connected by a red thread.

It’s making love without the _making,_ but Jean doesn’t need to be gasping at the sheets, begging Reyes for more to _make_. They simply do.

The song stops. Reyes replaces it with a melody in Spanish. He pretends Jean cannot understand a single word. _More romantic that way_ , he once told Jean. Jean thinks it’s less, _more_ if they can speak love in a language aside from English.

They can communicate love in four different languages, five if they count love as its own universal language. Jean wants them to communicate in six, wants Reyes to know how _ibig_ and _mahal_ are stronger than _love_ or _amo_.

In another time, Reyes will sing it to him too, under a canopy of constellations. They are the audience to their performance, glittering in the night sky while Jean looks over a window.

It’ll be just like the old vids.

In another time, they may not be together. An ocean divides them both, and so do the ills of their lands.

Reyes stops humming. He brings their lips together, deeper this time- _hungrier_. He leads Jean to the sofa, not once leaving his lips.

When they tumble on the sofa, Reyes removes his shirt. He pauses and allows Jean to marvel at the curves of his body. It’s not perfect, not the chiseled, muscular bodies Jean sees in those extranet sites.

_He's beautiful_ , Jean thinks, always. He leaves Jean desperate and wanting; always like their first and not their fifteenth. Reyes dives back to his lips. He pulls, bites, _tugs_ until Jean is gasping for air. Reyes gives, he always does.

“Don’t you have work to do,” Jean says in-between.

“I do,” he growls. The sound sends a shockwave through Jean’s body.

“Then?”

“Then...” Reyes crawls back and straddles his hips. Desperate fingers work on removing Jean’s pants. With one swift motion, Reyes shucks them off, dropping them on the floor.

Jean shivers. The coolness of the room trails goosebumps on his skin. In contrast, Reyes’ fingers are like hot metal, trailing a fire from his stomach to his arousal. He whimpers, and bucks his hips when Reyes hooks a finger underneath his waistband.

“Consider this distraction,” Reyes says as he drags Jean’s underwear down.

He gives Jean something to think about.

 

**Author's Note:**

> From a suggestion on tumblr, Reyes and Ryder dances to _Moonlight Serenade_. Here's the link to the [song ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjq1aTLjrOE)
> 
> [ my tumblr ](https://featheredfurther.tumblr.com/)


End file.
